All the history-making wins at the 95th Academy Awards
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Everything Everywhere All At Once led a spate of groundbreaking winners at the 2023 Oscars
Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / Contributor
Another year at the Oscars, another chapter in the film history books. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony brought plenty of memorable moments, but industry “firsts” were especially plentiful across a variety of major categories. Here, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the night’s most historic moments.
- Ruth E. Carter became the first African American woman with multiple Oscars after winning Best Costume Design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (she previously won for the first installment of “Black Panther”). Only four other African Americans are part of this elite group: Denzel Washington, Willie D. Burton, Russell Williams II, and Mahershala Ali.
- With their wins, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan hold the record for playing the most characters in one movie—in Everything Everywhere All At Once, over 70 versions of Yeoh’s character Evelyn appear. She portrayed most of them.
- Michelle Yeoh’s Best Actress win for Everything Everywhere All At Once makes her the first Southeast Asian woman to win the category, as well as the first Malaysian woman.
- A dual Canadian-American citizen, Brendan Fraser’s Best Actor win for The Whale means he’s the first Canadian to ever take home a statuette in the category.
- Another award, another first: Ke Huy Quan’s triumph in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in Everything Everywhere All At Once means he’s the first Vietnam-born actor to win for an acting performance (he’s also the first to win for portraying a Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese-speaking character.)
- Daniels’ Best Director win for Everything Everywhere All At Once makes them only the third duo to accomplish the feat—they’re preceded by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, who won in 1961 for West Side Story, and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, who won in 2007 for No Country for Old Men.
- Daniel Kwan’s win for Everything Everywhere All At Once with writing partner Daniel Scheinert makes Kwan the first writer of Chinese descent to win the trophy for Best Original Screenplay.
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